Archive for the ‘Architecture’ Category:
Prior Lake Palace
I love doing architectural photography – it has so much in common with landscape photography but doesn’t involve getting up before dawn or hiking in the dark. My good friend Vince from Memory Lane (www.memorylanemn.com) asked me do some images of a house he recently built. It was an amazing home – it even included an indoor snowmobile garage that allowed the owner to drive right out onto the lake from the house.
It was a challenging shoot because the house is being lived in by a family of 4. We only had about an hour to get the pictures – and we had to dodge cleaning people the entire time. This meant Vince scrambled to hide extra knick-knacks and vacuum cleaners while I lined the shot up. I’d fire three bracketed shots to compose the HDR picture, and he’d run around putting everything back while I moved to the next room.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 17mm ISO 200, f/16, 1.3 sec.
Here Lies St. Pete
Today’s image of the day was another shot capturing the grandeur that is St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. This structure is the baldacchino – a one hundred foot pavilion marking the spot where it is believed that St. Peter is buried. At one time it was thought to be the largest bronze structure in the world – and probably still is. This isn’t one of Michelangelo’s works – Bernini gets the nod for this one.
Vital Stats: Canon 350D w/Canon EF-S 10-22mm @ 10mm ISO 1600, f/5, 1/30 sec.
Wedding Spot in Paradise
Today’s image is from the beautiful Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii. Jon and I had rented a boat for the day to look for large marine mammals so that Jon could shoot them with his underwater camera rig. It seemed like a good idea for the first hour of the trip – then the record high swells started to get the best of me. I went ashore just ahead of the seasickness and spent a very relaxing couple of hours having lunch and scouting the gorgeous Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort.
This picture is of the wedding chapel grounds on the resort – a paradise location if I’ve ever seen one. It was taken with my Lensbaby to give it that dreamy fantasy look that fits the location. Need a destination wedding spot and a destination wedding photographer too? Have I got a deal for you!
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Lensbaby Composer ISO 400, f/5.6 ring, 1/1000 sec.
Needs Curb Appeal
This is the Walsh House in Animas Forks, CO. The Walsh house is the signature landmark in this well-preserved late-19th century ghost town just outside of Silverton, CO. It’s on the scenic route that takes a 4WD tourist over Cinnamon and Engineer Pass, but it can be reached by a cautious passenger car driver that has a little bit of extra ground clearance. This house was owned by Evalyn Walsh Mclean – a wealthy socialite that once owned the Hope Diamond.
The morning I took this picture, I drove up to Animas Forks pre-dawn hoping to get some striking first rays of light coming through the ghost town. It didn’t quite work out as planned – due to the high mountains surrounding the town, light didn’t actually make it into the town until about 90 minutes after sunrise. It was also about 25 degrees that morning – so I was good and frozen by the time the sun rose. I still ended up with great pictures – but none were exactly what I planned. Sometimes it works that way!
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 135mm f/2L @ 135mm ISO 100, f/2, 1/1000 sec
Door County Haven
Here’s an image from an architectural shoot that I did recently in Door County, WI. This is the little cabin that we stayed in for the weekend – and I was shooting it for the owner’s website. The cabin is located right in Ephraim, Wi about a block from the waterfront.
It’s surprisingly tricky to shoot architectural pictures – HDR is almost a mandatory prerequisite. The dead giveaway is that you can see out the windows – it isn’t a white bleached-out mess. The net result is a nice warm homey-looking picture that will hopefully drive more rentals for her adorable cabin. If interested in more information, the owner is on VRBO right here: http://www.vrbo.com/249849
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 17mm. ISO 100, f/16, 1/4 sec. +/- 2 stops
Anderson’s Dock
Here’s another shot of the famous Anderson’s Dock boathouse in Ephraim, WI. The city allows anybody to come and add their name to the building – as long as they don’t do anything offensive. As I was shooting this building, an entire family with a stepladder was immortalizing themselves on the backside of the building. In the olden days.. only winners of the local regatta would be allowed to put their names on the building.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 27mm ISO 100, f/14, 1/50 sec.
Log Cabin Place
And the picture of the day is.. a cabin.
This is part of an architectural shoot that I did in Door County last weekend when I was there. We were actually staying in this cabin – and I offered to shoot some really great shots of her place to help with marketing. It was such a cute place that others should really see what it really looks like. I’ll run a few more of the pictures in the next few days and I’ll explain how I got them – because it’s not easy to get good architecture shots.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 37mm ISO 100, f/8, 1/15 sec.